There are many advantages to robotic surgery. There are five incisions required but they are small. Blood loss is minimized, infection rates are reduced, and time in the hospital is shorter than with open surgery. I speak first hand, as I had a robot-assisted radical prostatectomy in July 2014. I went to the hospital early in the morning and was discharged at noon the next day. Happily, the outcome was good.

Surgeons and engineers at The University of Hong Kong and The Hong Kong Polytechnic University are developing a breakthrough new robotic surgical system. The system only requires a single incision. The surgical robotic arm has an internal micro-motor capable of up to 10 degrees of freedom of movement. In layman terms this means the robotic device can go where it needs to go in the body and do what it needs to do. Three successful surgeries have been performed on animals. Read the complete story at World’s First Internally Motorized Minimally Invasive Surgical Robot. Read more about the role of robots in healthcare in Health Attitude.